Sorted Magazine

Tag: Soul Fuel

  • Bear Grylls: “We can so easily feel worn down and tired out”

    Good stress is short-term and motivates you. Bad stress, however, is the kind that wears you out. Fortunately, the best remedy has no unwanted side-effects.

    After any adventure, rest is often the thing we need most. It’s the same with life: when we’re caught up in difficult seasons where we need a constant supply of resilience and persistence.

    Psalm 121 was written for all the weary among us, the stressed, all of those who’ve been running on fumes for far too long. It’s a beautiful psalm that speaks of the Lord’s protection over our lives.

    “He will not let your foot slip … The Lord will keep you from all harm … The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121:3-8

    You know what I love most about it? It starts with the psalmist searching for answers. He was at the end of his rope, scanning the skies, wondering, “Where does my help come from?” (v.1). It takes courage to admit that we need help, but it’s vital to our survival.

    Once he admitted that he needed help, the psalmist could move on and remind himself of the answer: “My strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life!” vs 2-4 MSG

    The next time you feel like you’re too long in the storm, read this psalm. It’s okay to need help, it’s good to take time away, and it’s strong to look up. Christ will always be with us – and will always protect us.

    Extract taken from Soul Fuel by Bear Grylls, published by Zondervan in the US and Hodder Faith in the UK.

    Main photo credit: Joshua Earle via Unsplash

  • Bear Grylls: “I was biting the ground in agony …”

    Bear Grylls: “I was biting the ground in agony …”

    In the summer of 1996, I spent a month helping out on a game farm in the northern Transvaal in South Africa. I decided to head north to Zimbabwe for some fun before heading home to the UK. For me back then, fun meant skydiving with good friends, with cool drinks in the evening. Life was all good.

    The flight to 15,000 fee was uneventful. I stood in the cargo area of the plane and looked down. I took a deep breath, then slid off the step. The clouds felt damp on my face as I fell through them. At 4,000 fee I pulled the ripcord and heard the canopy open with a reassuring crack. My free fall quickly slowed down from 130 to 25mph, just as it always did. But when I looked up, I realised something was wrong – very wrong. Instead of a smooth rectangular shape above me, I had a very deformed-looking tangle of chute, which would be a nightmare to control.

    I pulled hard on both steering toggles to see if that would help. It didn’t. I kept trying but I was burning through time and altitude fast. Within seconds I was too low to use my reserve chute, and the ground was coming up fast. I flared the chute too high and too hard. This jerked my body up horizontally, then I dropped away and smashed into the desert floor, landing on my back, right on top of the tightly packed rock-hard reserve chute.

    I couldn’t stand up; I could only roll over and moan on the dusty earth. I was biting the ground in agony. I didn’t know the extent of the damage at the time, that I had shattered three key vertebrae and would go on to spend months in and out of military rehabilitation back in the UK, strapped into braces and unable to move freely. But in those first few minutes as I lay there, one thing I did know was that my life had just changed forever.

    Sometimes it isn’t until we get knocked down that we find which way is up. Sometimes it isn’t until the sky clouds over that we notice the light. And sometimes it isn’t until we lie in the gutter that we begin to see the stars. The light of God has been the greatest source of hope this world has ever known. We can never be so far away that the light won’t reach us. Sometimes it is good to be reminded of that. Hope will always win – and the light of Christ reaches everywhere.

    Extract taken from Soul Fuel by Bear Grylls, published by Zondervan in the US and Hodder Faith in the UK.

    Main Photo credit: Fair Usage